Zidane questions Bale's 'enormous' price

Madrid, Sep 9, 2013 (IANS):

Real Madrid assistant coach Zinedine Zidane has expressed his surprise at the amount the Spanish club paid to sign Gareth Bale from Tottenham Hotspur.

Although Real Madrid sources say the club paid 91 million euros, Tottenham say that Real Madrid agreed to pay just over 100 million euros for the player, who was officially presented to the fans and the press a week ago, reports Xinhua.

Speaking on French TV station, Canal+, Zidane, who is close to Madrid president Florentino Perez, didn't deny that the club had paid the higher figure for Bale, but questioned the wisdom of paying so much money for the player.

Zidane was for a while the most expensive player in the world, joining Madrid for a fee of around 75 million euros and establishing himself as one of the heroes of the Santiago Bernabeu Stadium.

"I admitted that I was not worth 75 million euros and today I feel the same way: that no player is worth that. It is incomprehensible with all that is happening today. Two clubs agree a price without feeling forced to do so. Sadly that is the way football is," said the Frenchman.

Zidane had some advice for Bale, who very clearly is going to be under the spotlight when he returns to Spain.

"Bale understands the impact of his arrival: he is coming to the best club in the world and he is doing so with this enormous transfer fee. I lived through that and for the first three months it was very difficult and I even wondered if the best thing was to leave, but if you concentrate on what happens on the pitch, things happen more naturally and my job is to tell him to play as he knows how and not to pressure him," he said.